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ABBA-How many records did ABBA sell?

2010: ABBA's Frida and Bjorn are given are honored for selling 375 million units!

How many ABBA records have been sold?In 2010, ABBA’s estimable record label,
Universal, gave ABBA an award for having sold 375 million singles and albums.
This figure does not include record sales from MammaMia! and other solo
material.This 375 million sales figure
has not been verified independently. A sales total like that (if it were true)
would put them intop five record
sellers of all time. However, the people at Universal didn’t just go to their
computers and meticulouslyadd up sales of
every ABBA record, no, nothey likely
took prior announced figures and simply added to them.For example- in the 1990’s Stig Anderson
estimated ABBA’s sales at 250 million copies. So add some to that number and
you might get to 375 million.Stig was
probably the only person in the position to truly know what their sales were,
but he also had the incentive to hype their figures. Stig did not dispute it
when ABBA’s American label, Atlantic Records made the dubious claim in 1978
that ABBA were the largest selling recording artists in the history of recorded
music.

Wikipedia is one of few
bodiesdaring or foolish enough to try
answer the question of who the world’s biggest selling music acts are.It’s not a easy task.There are so many countries-and so little
hard information on sales prior to 1990’s. Wikipedia lists ABBA among the top
17 selling music acts based on “unverified’ claims of havingsold 200 million units or more.And
yet, they also downplay ABBA’s sales.Wikipedia says that ABBA’s verifiablesales certifications only equal 57 million units, a number that places ABBA
much lower in the list of best selling artists. (Wikipedia does acknowledge
that this lowball number emphasizes sales captured in the post 1991Soundscan era-when most record salesare tallied by computer). Can we verify
Universal’s375 million sales figure? During
their active career, ABBA was highly successful in most nearly every market
they competed in, with the notable exception of the United States. Despite this
success, ABBA’s eight studio albums only sold about 50 million copies in total.
(Acts really need success in the US market to ring up large tallies of album
sales.) ABBA’s compilation albums including the megaseller ABBA Gold have sold
approximately 80-100 million copies.ABBA
really does well in compilation sales-They have at least 12 compilation albums
that have sold over a million copies. Still, adding up, on your own, all their
sales certifications and adding generously for records that didn’t go gold- you
would have trouble getting past 175,000,000 in unitsales for long playing records. Counting up
their sales by country-is especially fruitless.Insteady, but usually unspectacular ,Great
Britain, for example, you add up their all their sales and even guessing
generously you do not get any more than 35million sales in total . In the small, but one time ABBA crazy
Australian market, I came up with about 8- 12 million units in total.In the world’s biggest record market-the
United States they sold a pathetic total of maybe 14 to 20 million
records.Germany? Only 10-20 million.I’m up to 82 million and I’m running
out of big markets.-I’m not going to get close to 375 million.What ifwe add singles sales to the totals? The charts on the next two pages
gives some idea of what ABBA’s singles sales might be.The total number of sales for all ABBA
singles is likely to range from 60to
80million units. So what’s our grand
total foralbums and singles? Maybe,
200 to 250 million units?So where are
all those extra millions in sales coming from? Could it be a series of hyped
sales estimates that have been enshrined over time? Or maybe the source issalesfrom record clubs (not always included in certifications), sales from obscure
countries and so on and on.

ABBAmusichas been around over 40
years, they have released over 100 compilations andsold records in a 100 or more territories and
you know that kind of thing (even in small amounts) does add up over time.ABBA is a uniquely universal group, selling
or having their music stolen in every conceivable market. ABBA were popular in
the heyday in even less traditional markets like Japan, Latin America, Eastern
Europe, the Philippines, and nowadays in places like China and Korea. We just
can’t nail down a total sales numbers. Maybe Universal (and its predecessors) secretly
sold millions of records in Mongolia. I guess will never know.

UK-ABBA
had the most #1 albums in row (a total tied with Led Zeppelin) in the United
Kingdom. The Official Charts Company says they are among the top ten all time
acts for single sales in the UK. ABBA Gold
was the #1 album at three different
times in the UK.Mamma Mia is the biggest selling movie DVD in UK history. The word
Abba appears three times in the new testament.

USA-ABBA was the first Swedish group to
chart in the USA, but only the second Swedish group to make the top 40 or go to
number one on the single chart.They
have the most American top 40 hits of any Swedish group. ABBA
Gold has sold more copies in the USA than in any other country (6 to 8
million).The Mamma Mia soundtrack is
the only ABBA related album to top the American Top 200 album charts. ABBA had
only # 1 single in the USA. Fellow Swede Max Martin
has written 19 American #1's.

Oceania-Best of ABBA is considered the biggest selling album in New Zealand
history, and this album used to (and
some say still does ) have that title in Australia. Four of ABBA albums are certified 10x platinum
in Australia. “Fernando” was number one for 14 (or15) weeks in a Australia ,
the longest number of weeks ever for any single.

ABBA Gold-ABBA
Gold is among the top five selling albums ever in Australia, the United Kingdom,
Ireland, Germany, New Zealand This record is ABBA biggest selling album with
over 29 million copies sold.

Sweden-Arrival and The Album are both said (not verified) to have sold 700,000
copies each in Sweden. ABBA ( 1975)
and ABBA Gold have sold around
500,000 copies in Sweden. Sweden has only nine million people. Agnetha and Frida each had three
number albums in Sweden. BAO had two number albums, the Chess concept album and the Mamma
Mia soundtrack also went to number one.

Japan:
The Voulez-Vous album sold nearly 1,000, 000 copies. Belgium- From 1976 to 1980 their singles never charted below #2 on the BRT.

Overall-ABBA had 25 different songs hit #1 on at least one national chart (source:
Ian Cole from Trent Nickson)

well it's really interesting this article, but i see some wrongs, for example in Mexico habba has 9 numbers one, "Fernando" sold record 10 millions and Waterloo 6, Arrival, The Album, Voulez vous and Super Trouper (albums) sold more than 15 million according to the wikipedia Same certifications Showing some countries like China.The ABBA 40th anniversary video (ON YOU TUBE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27TGkADStbw ) detailing ABBA had 111 singles number one 76 number one albums , and finally sold 370 million albums , 1980 ABBA entry into Guinness record by selling 180 million sold record in six years , finally said to have sold Billboard 400 million...

A French fellow called Eric has carefully worked out the Global No.1 Singles of many Acts. He gets 131 International No.1 Singles for ABBA - or 20 more than the 40th Anniversary You Tube Video gives them. They actually had 132 Global No.1 Singles. Eric uses the wrong Chart for Canada. The Chart that he uses says that 'Dancing Queen' was a No.2 Hit. In fact it spent 2 Weeks at No.1 in the 'Official' Canadian Charts in 1977.

You can get even more Global ABBA No.1 Singles, if you use the BRT Chart for Belgium. They had 16 No.1 Singles in that Chart - to 14 in the Belgian Humo Chart. They had 11 No.1 Singles in the UK's New Musical Express Chart, as both 'Chiquitita' & 'One Of Us' were No.1 Hits in that Chart. They reached No.2 & No.3 in the 'Official' UK Charts, where ABBA had 9 No.1 Singles.

Felpin - As I expected, there will be a 25th Anniversary Edition of 'ABBA Gold'. The 25th Anniversary is not until September, but it is being commemorated in June, for some reason. Although there are 'Alternative Versions' of several ABBA Hits, Benny & Bjorn will not let the Fans, (or Universal Music), have them. So, the 25th Anniversary Edition, of 'ABBA Gold', is just the same old 19 Tracks. It is a 2 Disk Vinyl Album 'Set'. The only 'gimmick' is that it is on 'Gold' Vinyl - although it looks like a weird shade of Green to me. Here is a Link, so you can see what Fans think of it - and see photos of it:

ABBA had several #1's on various US official Billboard charts:Fernando #1 Official Adult Cont chartThe Winner takes it all #1 (2 weeks) Official Adult Cont chartsLay all your love #1 Official Dance charts. BillboardAlso ABBA amassed many Top 10 hits on various Official Billboard charts:2 top ten Dance charts8. top ten Adult Cont charts

ABBA had several #1's on various US official Billboard charts:Fernando #1 Official Adult Cont chartThe Winner takes it all #1 (2 weeks) Official Adult Cont chartsLay all your love #1 Official Dance charts. BillboardAlso ABBA amassed many Top 10 hits on various Official Billboard charts:2 top ten Dance charts8. top ten Adult Cont charts

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